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Have you just started a B2B company? Or are you new to marketing for a B2B company? Marketing for a B2B company is different than marketing for a B2C, but it’s just as important. Here are some marketing tips to help you grow your B2B company and how to offer value to your target audience.

Write a blog.

You want to have helpful content that solves your audience’s problems, and a blog is a great way to make yourself an industry expert. To get going on your business blog, ask yourself, what are the most common problems my audience has? What are my company’s goals and how can I write about them?

Update blog posts that do well.

Sometimes a blog post does really well. You get a lot impressions and comments. People are engaging with the post because it offers value.

But somewhere down the line, you go back to that blog post that did so well and notice it is a bit outdated. You still want that piece of content to be valuable, so update that blog post with the most relevant information so that it continues to rank well on search engines and gain traction.

Do video marketing.

Blogging isn’t the only way to provide value to your clients. As this article from Forbes explores, video is the future of media on the web. This article reports that Facebook is prioritizing video content more than ever and that video is almost as big as mobile. You could make videos that showcase your products and/or services and tutorials that visually help businesses solve their problems.

Start a podcast.

Podcasts have exploded over the last few years due in large part to the rise of smartphones. Podcasts are wonderful because they can help you expand your expertise and network. This is especially true if a big portion of your podcast involves interviewing guests. When you have a guest on your show, they’ll promote it to their community, who will then want to check you out. Or in turn, if you invite a client onto your podcast, it can build a stronger rapport with them because you’re promoting them and having a meaningful conversation with them. A podcast is a lot of work (this article from Search Engine Land dives into that), but it can really help strengthen your content marketing and grow your B2B company.

Use LinkedIn.

If you’re a B2B company, you have to be on LinkedIn. It is the outline platform for growing your network and finding business opportunities. Check out this blog post we wrote about how to get the most out of LinkedIn.

Treat your audience as people.

It’s easy when you run a B2B company to forget that your targeted audience has life outside of their job. They’re people just like you. They go to their kids’ Saturday morning soccer games, go on vacations, and binge watch Netflix just like you! Humanize your marketing. Profile your staff and share what makes each employee unique. Show your audience a behind the scenes look at your business. Show them how you make your products and/or create your services. Humanizing your marketing is a must have as it’ll help you connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Do you market for a B2B company? Do you agree with our tips? What are some tips you do that we may have left out? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier this month, we wrote a blog post about how to have a great seasonal website. Today on the blog, we’re going to be covering seasonal marketing tips. Seasonal marketing is a great way to get into the new season or holiday, and it has been shown to increase sales.

Here are some important things to make note of before you begin: – When it comes to seasonal marketing, timing is very important. Allot yourself a few months to plan and prep. The best ideas won’t come to you if you’re feeling crunchtime. – Don’t feel pressured to have a seasonal marketing campaign for every season and holiday. Think about what is most relevant to your business. What times of the year does your company get the most business?

Now on to the tips:

Create Valuable Seasonal Content

We think it’s safe to say the reason we started our businesses was to be of service. Regardless if you’re a B2C or a B2B, you want your business to offer something valuable to your customers and clients. A great way to accomplish this is to create helpful content for your targeted audience.

For example, if you’re an interior designer, you might create a piece of content where you give away your favorite staging tips. If you’re a dentist, you could share the best ways to clean your teeth after Halloween.

If you’re an employment/human resources attorney, you could share your tips on how to cultivate a better work environment near Labor Day.

Run A Social Media Campaign

Everybody is on social media these days, so what better place to promote your business than with a social media campaign? If you’re a B2C business, you may want to consider promoting your products through Facebook Ads, and if you’re a B2B, by utilizing LinkedIn Ads.

Do A Photo Contest

Photo contests are a fun way to engage your audience. Keep the rules simple, create a landing page where you can collect people’s information, and have a prize that people will want to win. Some ideas you could do is a Halloween costume contest or an ugly sweater contest in December. You could give away a product related to your industry (e.g., an IT company could give away a computer, a boutique could give away a gift card, etc.), or offer one of your services for free.

Come Up With a Hashtag

Connect with your audience by coming up with a clever hashtag. Going back to our previous tip, you could use the hashtag as a way to see who is participating in your contest instead of creating a separate landing page. Hashtags are also a good way to introduce new people to your business and your campaigns. When a person sees one of their friends participating in your contest or campaign, it may give them the incentive to join in too.

Direct Mail Promos

In today’s digital world, it’s easy to forget about this last tip, but direct mail is still an effective way to remind people of your business. Design a postcard that gets people into the spirit and has a clear call-to-action.

If you need help with your seasonal marketing, give us a call. We offer social media, blogging, photography, digital marketing campaigns, and graphic print work.

In today’s world, it’s a lot easier for nonprofits to market themselves. Not only do we have the Internet, but there are certain strategies and programs nonprofits can use that can be advantageous for their organization in the digital space.

Be active on social media. Social media is great for nonprofits because not only do most people have a profile on a social media platform, but they are also free to post content. Aim to post your content every day so it has a greater chance of appearing in your followers’ feeds. You don’t have to have an account on every social network. Consider who your target audience is and where they spend their time scrolling feeds.

Add The ‘Donate Now’ Button To Your Facebook Page + Ads. If there’s one social media platform every nonprofit should be on, it’s Facebook. Facebook draws in users in just about every age bracket. You can put a ‘Donate Now’ button on your nonprofit’s Facebook page and on the ads you design for Facebook. Through Facebook, you can create ads targeted to users based on their location, demographic, and profile. After the ads are created, you can set a budget for each click or thousand impressions you will receive.

Apply for Google Ad Grants. Google Ad Grants is the nonprofit version of AdWords. It is a program by Google that offers $10,000 of free online advertisement each month to nonprofits. The ads can be created to attract donations, recruit volunteers, and share the nonprofit’s story. To apply (https://www.google.com/grants/), you need a Google account and a TechSoup account.

Create Content That Tells Your Story. Above all, create content that sells your organization’s ‘why’. Always prioritize your ‘why’ over your ‘what’. Your ‘what’ being the services your nonprofit offers and the ‘why’ being the explanation as to why your organization does the work it does. This content will inspire people and will set you apart from other organizations that may offer the same services you do. Some ways you could tell your story are through blog posts, podcast episodes, and a video series.

Sperling Interactive works with a number of nonprofits, and right now we are offering a new service to help nonprofits make the most of their Google Ad Grants campaigns. Call us at (978) 304-1730 or email us at lisa@sperlinginteractive.com to learn more.

Facebook is one of the premier places on the Internet to promote your business. Facebook offers a variety of ways to advertise. No matter what type of business you run, you are sure to have a way to reach to your targeted audience in the way they consume content. Read along to learn about the different types of ads you can run on Facebook.

Link Ads

Link ads are the most common type of ads. They are the ads most people think of when they think of Facebook ads. When you click on a link ad, you are brought to either a website or a curated landing page. This type of ad generally performs well and can help generate likes for your business Facebook page.

According to Facebook, “whether you want people to learn about your product, buy a ticket, or download an eBook, Facebook link ads are a great way to get people clicking to your website and visiting the pages you’d like them to see.”

Video Ads

As we’ve touched upon before here on the blog, video is the future of digital marketing. Video content can really bring your business to life. With this form of advertising, you don’t have to write a blurb or upload a photo. Video ads are a powerful way to tell your story, fuel engagement, bring visitors to your website, and increase leads.

Boosted Posts

Every time you post content to your Facebook page, Facebook gives you the option to boost that post. When you boost a post, you pay to get more people to see that content. Your post essentially becomes an ad and you get to control the audience who sees it.

We recommend boosting your content every now and then as there is a decline in organic reach on Facebook. We suggest boosting content that you want to get in front of a large group of people, such as a testimonial, an upcoming event your company is hosting, or a special offer.

Carousel Ads

The carousel ad allows you to showcase up to 10 images or videos within a single ad, and each image or video has its own link. This form of advertising works especially well for e-commerce stores, or if you’d like to promote several different offers for your business as it gives people a chance to see an array of your products.

Dynamic Product Ads

These type of ads involve re-targeting people who have previously checked out your business. An example of this Facebook ad would be targeting a person who has been to your website before but hasn’t made an action yet, such as completing a form, signing up for your newsletter, buying a product, etc. You need to install Facebook Pixel to use this form of advertising.

Facebook Lead Ads

This type of ad is designed to help you get, you guessed it, more leads. What’s great about Facebook Lead Ads is it can get people to complete a call-to-action (sign up for an offer or download a piece of content) all without having to leave the Facebook app or website. Lead Ads gives you access to information about your leads. Once you have someone’s information, you can then sync them into your CRM system (customer relationship management system). This will allow you to follow up with them.

Canvas Ads

Canvas Ads are only available on mobile devices. With Canvas Ad, your target audience can swipe through a carousel of images, tilt the image in different directions, and zoom in or zoom out of the images. Canvas Ads load 10 times faster than standard mobile web applications. This is a great ad to use if yours is a product-based business or a visual business like a marketing agency or a lifestyle brand.

Collection Ads

This ad is only available for mobile devices and allows you to showcase multiple products that are being sold on your website. Collection Ads have become quite popular because more and more people are browsing Facebook through their mobile devices and it offers a seamless browsing experience.

Page Like Ads

Page Like Ads are the go-to ads for increasing the number of likes on your Facebook page. You may have seen a page like ad before. It’s an ad that shows pages your friends have liked. The ad encourages users to check out the page.

Page Post Photo Ads

This is another ad that can drive up likes and engagement on your Facebook Page. It’s your chance to give Facebook users information about you. According to Facebook, page post photo ads are a chance to “share updates and stories, connect with your followers and a new audience, and build your brand and customer base.”

Page Post Text Ads

This ad is the worst type of ad as it’s just text. As a result, it doesn’t get much engagement, likes, or leads. It underperforms because it doesn’t have much of an engaging element to it like a photo, video, or link based ad.

Mobile App Ad

If you have a mobile app and would like to grow it, Mobile App Ad is the type of ad to use. It gives people the opportunity to install your app from Facebook. You can get really specific with targeting. You can choose which iOS/Android version you want the user to have and if you want the target audience to be on a tablet or a smartphone.

Events Ad

This ad helps event organizers attract more visitors/attendees to their upcoming event(s). Depending on the size and/or relevance of your event, you may want to limit the geographical reach of the ad. The ad, after all, is pay-per-click and you wouldn’t want somebody who doesn’t live near the event to click on it and waste your marketing dollars.

Offer Ads

This ad works well for brick and mortar stores when they have any discounts coming up. When a user clicks on the button “Get Offer” next to the ad, they will redeem the offer and receive an email containing the details and terms of use.

Local Awareness Ad

Local awareness ads work best when it comes to location-based targeting. These ads pop up for users when they are near your business. The call-to-action buttons you can use on this ad can include “Call Now” or “Get Directions.”

With 2018 right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking how you’re going to market your business or nonprofit in the new year. To give you a breather after the crazy Christmas season, we have four digital marketing trends we expect to explode next year.

Personalize sales approach. Everyone wants to be remembered and known. Consumers are over marketing strategies that aren’t making them feel reached out to. Marketers will be getting more personal with their target audience in 2018 by addressing them by their names in email blasts (personalized emails have been shown to deliver six times higher transaction rates) and custom landing pages.

A continued rise in LinkedIn. This year many are calling it the silent rise of LinkedIn. This platform is not longer the place where you just upload your resume and look for jobs. Pulse and LinkedIn Video are changing the way professionals and businesses interact. LinkedIn currently has 500 million members with two people joining every second. If yours is a B2B, LinkedIn is an excellent place to post ads.

An increased use in Instagram stories and live videos. 800 million people use Instagram each month. Instagram introduced Instagram Stories last year and it has gone on to surpass Snapchat. With that, it is predicted that Instagram Stories and live videos will increase in 2018. Not everyone sees your page every day, but if you post regularly on Instagram stories, people will get to see a few seconds of your company.

More video content. The current statistics for video content is all you need in order to know it’s about to shoot up. Right now, 87% of online marketers create video content. Video content is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019.

If you still need help setting your 2018 marketing goals, Sperling Interactive will be hosting “Creating A Successful Marketing Strategy For The New Year” on January 17, 2018 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Register here!

Landing pages are separate entities from your website. A landing page is the page a person lands on after clicking on an online marketing call-to-action (e.g. search ads, display ads, email campaigns). An effective landing page is important as ads are only as good as their landing pages.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of this ad and landing page? Landing pages can have multiple purposes. They can be used to sell a product or service, make an announcement, offer a discount, get people to join your email list, and educate visitors on your company and expertise. Before you begin creating your landing page, though, ask yourself who is my target audience and what do they need to know?

Write a catchy headline. According to research, 8 in 10 people will read a headline and only 2 out of the 10 will read the rest. With that said, it’s always a good idea to take your time when coming up with the headline as it’s the first impression you make. When drafting the headline, keep in mind the focus of your purpose and any specifications your target audience may need to know.

Include eye-catching visuals. Research has also shown that 40% of people respond better to visual information than to text. Visuals for your landing pages are not limited to photographs. They can include videos and infographics.

Be mindful. You need to be strategic with your layout. Your landing page should have a logical progression. Start with a headline and maybe include a subheadline, a secondary headline that can be used to elaborate on the primary headline, if needed. Follow that by conveying what is being offered. You’ll also want to add a call to action button, but remember to only have one call to action per landing page so as not to bombard people. Other features you could use are testimonials and any facts you have that prove you’re a trusted brand.

Content marketing increases sales, enables you to connect with consumers, and is the way of the future in the marketing world. Repurposing your content is when you take a subject you’ve discussed in the past and come at it from a new angle. You can repurpose your content in one of two ways: the format (i.e. blog posts, email marketing, social media posts, podcasts, infographics, videos, ebooks) and target audience. Repurposing your content is the most effective way to strategize your content marketing and below are the benefits of doing so.

Improves your SEO. The web pages that are ranked the highest on results pages are there because search engines trust their content. The more times you produce content around a particular topic, the greater chances you have at becoming one of the top sites on results pages. Repurposing content also increases your ability to build links, which is when you include links to a webpage to improve the page or website’s search engine ranking.

Saves time and generates more ideas. Thehardest part of content marketing is coming up with fresh, new ideas. When you repurpose content, you generate new ways to share the services you provide and the insights you have in your industry.

Showcases your expertise. Your ability to spit out content in different formats and points of views will prove to others that you know what you’re talking about. When you show your expertise, you truly set yourself apart from your competition. Additionally, showcasing your expertise will keep visitors on your website and social media pages longer.

Gains you new leads. When you change the ways you deliver your business’ message through repurposing your content, you introduce your company to new leads. Not everyone is a reader. The same thing goes for not everyone being a visual learner or an audio learner. Switching up your content media allows you to reach and retain more potential clients.

What are the effects of having a great design when it comes to marketing? It can help you be easily recognizable to your customers and audience. Most importantly, it can help the growth of your business as it develops its unique professionalism that only your business can bring to its field.

Clearer message – Conveying a clear message is important when marketing to your audience. Everyone would much rather read a text that combines text and imagery that tells a compelling story and intrigues them to be apart of it. Therefore, it is important to go visual as a picture speaks a thousand words. Instead of basic black and white, incorporate photographs, graphic representations to support the message you want to spread. As a result, it would make a bigger impact and be marketable to a wider audience.

Strengthen company – Maintaining a solid design within your brand can help customers not only recognize it, but trust your business as well. Every creative piece or service that happens within your company, should support the identity of your business. It will show you pay attention to detail and maintain good taste, leaving your business being seen as professionals in the field.

Consistency – The image of your display can be one of the easiest approaches to how your customers view your services. For example, using the same text styles, logos and same hues with a specific textual style and shading pallet can be an easier way for your logo to be identified. Keeping a consistency with your logo makes a lovelier ordeal and makes it simpler to recognize in every element that it is used. In other words, you quality work are what people require, and consistency in a logo will keep your customers coming.

Your design plays a huge role with marketing and can play a huge part of the business success. With a lot of experience and knowledge, the marketing and design aspect can be beneficial to your business and your customers.

This blog post is a continuation of the marketing mistakes 2 part series where we review the many popular marketing mistakes we are all guilty of doing at some point in our business. Here are some mistakes to watch out for and avoid:

Using the Wrong Platforms:

It can be difficult, at first, to decide on the appropriate platforms for promotions or simply to share important content. The best way to decide on a platform is to find out where your target audience spends most of their time and find out what are the best ways to contact them. Try sharing content on every platform available and keeping an eye on the analytics of each one to see which results in a high response rate. This will help you weed out the channels that are of no use to you.

Spending a lot Too Fast:

Chances are that, if you are spending too much too fast, you are not giving you and your company enough time to test out different platforms and strategies and are, instead, doing a lot at a time. It’s important to test out different strategies to see what works best and what doesn’t before spending all of your money.

Not Measuring Results:

Measuring your results is a crucial part of developing a successful marketing strategy. This is the only way to track whether your strategy is giving you the best results and tells you whether you should keep spending money on it or move on to something different.

Not Expanding your Network:

Networking is one of the many important components of marketing successfully. A large network means more promotions for your work. Word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire and are a trusted way of getting your business “out there” and gaining more clients.

Following in Competitors Footsteps:

Think about it; when you see competitors sharing similar marketing efforts it can be boring and eventually confusing as to which brand did what. Avoid replicating your competitor’s marketing strategies. What may work for them, may not work for your business. In addition, many times their marketing efforts may only look like they are working when, in reality, it could be a failing technique.

For help in avoiding such marketing mistakes, contact Sperling Interactive!

We have all been there before, where we come up with a great new marketing plan but end up having a hard time getting a strong response rate. Chances are that we are committing one, or multiple, of the following common marketing mistakes:

Weak Written Material:

Having strong writing skills is a crucial part in communicating with your target audience. In order to fully get through to your customers and motivate them to take action, you must first move them with your words. This can only be done through strong written content. The content should interest your readers.

Forgetting about SEO:

SEO is important in marketing for company visibility. When creating any marketing materials, do not forget to incorporate important industry keywords, tags and Meta descriptions to help your business rank high on search.

Repeating others Content:

Every now and then we all get stuck or seem to run out of new ideas and look to others for inspiration. However, while doing this, we end up repeating content every now and then. Doing this can make it difficult for your target audience to remember you. Write in your own point of view and incorporate your own experiences and inspirations into your work.

Not Self-Promoting:

Whenever you think about self-promotion, you probably think about something along arrogance, but it does not have to be this way. The truth of the matter is that if you’re not promoting your content, how will your audience know what your company has been up to? Promote your business’ greatest achievements and invite others to the celebration!

No Call to Action:

Not having a call to action is a big mistake. All your messages and marketing materials should end with a call to action. Connect your marketing materials to your brand and finish off with an instruction on what to do next and how to do it.

Learning from our mistakes is important. If you need help developing a marketing plan that works, contact Sperling Interactive for help!